Antineutrino counters

New neutrino detectors debut

Faint flashes of light may soon reveal more about some of nature’s most ghostly particles — and maybe even new clues to an enduring mystery about the universe. A pair of neutrino detectors now up and running beneath a mountain in China, part of the Daya Bay Reactor Neutrino Experiment, count antineutrinos shooting out of nearby nuclear reactors.

Antineutrinos, neutral particles that hardly interact with matter, come in three different types (electron, tau or muon) and can change, or oscillate, from one type to another while traveling through space.

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